The House of Assembly yesterday passed the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2015. This important piece of legislation has three main features as follows:
1. It amends the definition of “gainful occupation” to exclude from the definition (but only for the purposes of applying for a business license) persons who have invested in a business and who do not intend to work in that business and passive investors who are non-executive directors of the business and who are not involved in the day to day operation of that business.
The previous law required all such investors to possess a work permit in order for the business to be granted a business license. This amendment revised this provision. However, if the investor intends to be involved in the day to day operation of the business or intends to work in the business, he or she would still require a work permit.
2 The Bill also amends section 13(1) and section 30 of the Immigration Ordinance by deleting the phrase “living together with the Belonger” to be replaced by “and the holder of a Residence Permit”.
The effect of this amendment at section 13(1) is that a spouse of an Islander who holds a Residence Permit is free to work in the Islands, thereby requiring spouses of Islanders to get a residency permit in order to work, as opposed to just relying on their living together with their Islander spouse for their working rights.
The practical effect of this amendment is that so long as a spouse of an Islander is in possession of a Residence Permit, he or she may work in the Islands, even if they are no longer living together.
3. Persons who were married before the change of law on August 13, 2012, can benefit from the law as it was on that date, with the result of this amendment being that those persons will only be required to be married to and living with an Islander spouse for 5 years ending with the date of his or her application for Islander status, whereas everyone who would have gotten married on or after August 13, 2012, would have to continue to wait the 10 years, as prescribed in the 2012 amendment.
For any further questions regarding the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2015, please contact the Office of the Minister for Border Control and Employment.
